The values across cultures: " Individualism vs Collectivism, Power Distance, Achievement- Nurturing"

Nowadays, there are many values that people and organizations usually practices. The key values that play a pivotal role and probably effect the people and organisations are tend to subscribe is individual-collectivism, power distance and achievement-nurturing. In other word I will discuss all the above with sharing some of my experiences to make us more understand on these values. Individualism versus collectivism Individualism and the collectivism is the two commonly mentioned across-cultural value. The individualism is the extent to which a person values independence and personal uniqueness, while the collectivism is extent to which people value duty to groups to which they belong and to group harmony Individualism and collectivism are cultural traits that describe the common attitude toward the individual as compared to the group (Kim & Hakkoe, 1994). For example a canonical comparison of individualism and collectivism on the cultural scale are the United States, which ranks as a highly individualist society, and Japan, which ranks as a highly collectivist society. Individualism is more focus on the personals goal, hard work and individual achievement purpose rather than the groups. Some said that Individualism has a controversial relationship with egoism (selfishness). For example, the Singaporean are likely to be said is very highly individualism which the employees will always fight for the benefit by themselves and they are very egoism intense of sharing skill or knowledge among themselves because want to protect their career. For info, I had the experience which my friend who are very highly individualism. This person is very self-sufficiency and very personal freedom where he is very independence when doing their assignment alone and didn’t need their friend help. Mean that this person is very high individualism because he don’t like doing the assignment in the group because he want to keep their work in personally with he ability. Some time he gets the low score in their assignment is because the assignments sometime need a group discussion to do better than individual. In contrast, collectivism is focus on strong association to groups including family and work units. For example, blame for making bad decision is share among group members. Beside that, I had a experience in this collectivism value where my best friend invite me playing futsal with other friend and during the match our team have a some misleading in the pointed and make the situation come worse and hopefully my friend are able to control the situation to be comedown. So in the case, my friend is very caring with us during the match and asks the result our team wins the match in excited. Power Distance The power distance is a degree to which a society expects there to be differences in the levels of power. A high score suggests that there is an expectation that some individuals with larger amounts of power than others. A low score reflects the view that all people should have equal rights. Power distance is importance and it considers very high values in the Asian countries including in Malaysia. For example, New Zealand and Denmark expect and accept power relations that are more consultative or democratic. People relate to one another more as equals regardless of formal positions. Subordinates are more comfortable with and demand the right to contribute to and critique the decision making of those in power. In large power distance countries, Malaysia is less powerful accepts power relations that are more autocratic and paternalistic. Subordinates acknowledge the power of others simply based on where they are situated in certain formal, hierarchical positions. As such the Power Distance Index Hofstede defines does not reflect an objective difference in power distribution but rather the way people perceive power differences. (Geert hofstede 2001) Achievement versus nurturing Achievement-nurturing orientation reflects a competitive versus cooperation view of relations with other people. People with high achievement orientation value assertiveness, competitiveness, and materialism. They appreciate people who are tough and favor the acquisition of money and the material goods. In contrast, people in nurturing oriented cultures emphasize relationships and the well being of others. They focus on human interaction and caring rather than competition and personal success. For example, the people in Norway can be score in low achievement oriented because the Norway People are not materialist as we can see that Norway is the low crime rate in the world. Beside that, I had experience which my friend are very high achievement because he always very greedy in term of material because when i In other hand, nurturing is focus on caring with other people who need assistance and support. In our life, our parent is nurturing us until we are able to independence. They always make sure we all are growth in the better life with enough wear, use, eat and protection. Beside that also, nurse also play an importance role when the patient are in sick. Nurse is example of the nurturing person n the human life when the patients need the caring. I had is experience when my uncle are caring by the nurse when we are not around my uncle. They give my uncle a very comfortable service and tool that needed by patient. The above cross-cultural values are very importance to the all kinds of organizational but they have the difference value across boundary. Difference culture have difference values, and it same to the difference countries too. The successful apply the better value will help the organisation more sustainable and gain more profitable than others. REFERENCES 1. Mc Shane, SL & Von Glinow, MA2008 Organizational Behavior, 4TH edn, McGraw- Hill, USA 2. http://www.itchybrainscentral.com/personality-culture-individualism-collectivism-paper.html 3. http://www.wikipedia.org/ 4. Ivancevich, JM, Konopaske, R & Matteson, MT 2008, Organizational Behavior and Management, 8th edn., McGraw-Hill, USA.